Edward W. Bok

There was an entire unwillingness to let business interfere with any anticipated pleasure or personal engagement. The office was all right between…

The talk during lunch hour rarely, if ever, turned toward business, except as said before, when it dealt with underpaid services. In the spring and…

It soon became evident to Bok why scarcely five out of every hundred of the young men whom he knew made any business progress. They were not…

"Oh, what do you care?" was the favorite expression. "The boss won't notice it if you break your back over his work; you won't get any more pay."

Eventually, then, Bok learned that the path that led to success was wide open: the competition was negligible. There was no jostling. In fact, travel…

Of course, Edward Bok had to prove to himself that his conception of conditions was right. He felt instinctively that it was, however, and with…

Obstacles, to Edward Bok, soon became merely difficulties to be overcome, and he trusted to his instinct to show him the best way to overcome them.…

The personnel of the Scribner house was very youthful from the members of the firm clear down the line. It was veritably a house of young men.

The story is told of a Boston publisher, sedate and fairly elderly, who came to the Scribner house to transact business with several of its…

With his yearnings for some one more advanced in years full upon him, the visitor now inquired for the business manager of the new magazine, only…

At this point the Boston man asked to see Mr. Scribner. This disclosed to him Mr. Arthur H. Scribner, the junior partner, who owned to twenty-eight…

"This is a young-looking crowd," said Mr. Scribner one day, looking over his young men. And his eye rested on Bok. "Particularly you, Bok.…

This youthful personnel, while it made for esprit de corps, had also its disadvantages. One day as Bok was going out to lunch, he found a…

Another youthful clerk in the Scribner retail bookstore, unconscious of the customer's identity, waited one day on the wife of Mark Twain.

With so many young men of the same age, there was a natural sense of team-work and a spirit of comradeship that made for successful co-operation.…

But Bok did not have much time for evening enjoyment, since his outside interests had grown and prospered and they kept him busy. His syndicate was…

This Alpha and Omega of all the commandments in the editorial creed some editors learn by sorrowful experience. Bok was, again, fortunate in learning…

He was now to receive his first public baptism of fire. He had published a symposium, through his newspaper syndicate, discussing the question,…

One of the contributors was the Reverend Richard S. Storrs, D.D., one of the most distinguished of Brooklyn's coterie of clergy of that day. A few…

Coming from a man of Doctor Storrs's prominence, the accusation was, of course, a serious one. Bok realized this at once. He foresaw the damage it…

That evening Bok got at the papers in the case, and found out that, technically, Doctor Storrs was right: he had not written or signed such a…

"Well, Edward, you are right and you are wrong," said Mr. Beecher. "And so is Storrs, of course. It is beneath him to do what he has done. Storrs and…

With such a figure to whom to do honor, the contributors, of course, included the foremost men and women of the time. Grover Cleveland was then…

The newspapers gave very large space to the distinguished memorial, and this fact angered a journalist, Joseph Howard, Junior, a man at one time…

Howard had convinced a number of editors of the justice of his position, and so he secured a wide publication for his attack. For the second time,…

One evening some literary men were dining together previous to going to a private house where a number of authors were to give readings from their…

The reading was to be at the house of John Kendrick Bangs at Yonkers. When Davis's "turn" in the programme came, he announced that he would read a…

All publishing houses employ "readers" outside of those in their own offices for the reading of manuscripts on special subjects. One of these…

Hastily gathering up the manuscript, the critic shoved the work into a drawer of his desk, and asked that his friend be shown in.

"No," said the friend. "It may interest you to know that I have been turning to literary work, and have just completed what I consider to be an…

Bok was waiting to see one of the members of a publishing firm when a well-known English publisher, visiting in America, was being escorted out of…

As these last words were spoken, a man seated at a desk directly behind the speaker looked up, smiled, and resumed reading a document which he had…

Bok saw the little comedy, realized at once that he had discovered the author of The Breadwinners, and stated to the publisher that he intended to…

On another visit to Hartford, shortly afterward, Bok was just turning into Forrest Street when a little old woman came shambling along toward him,…

Running the elevator in the building where a prominent publishing firm had its office was a negro of more than ordinary intelligence. The firm had…

There was one New York newspaper that prided itself on its huge circulation, and its advertising canvassers were particularly insistent in securing…

This wonderful offer appealed with singular force to the class of readers of this particular paper, and they decided to take advantage of it. The…

Edward Bok's lines were now to follow those of advertising for several years. He was responsible for securing the advertisements for The Book Buyer…

One day the question of heresy came up between the two men, and during a pause in the discussion, Bok, looking for light, turned to Doctor Briggs and…

Doctor Briggs, taken off his guard for a moment, looked blankly at his young questioner, and repeated: "What is heresy?"

"No, no," answered the Princeton theologian, as the slightest wink came from the eye nearest Bok, "I wouldn't attempt it for a moment. Too much for…

On another occasion, as the two were busy in their discussion of some article to be inserted in the magazine, Bok listening with all his might,…

Doctor Briggs's face was a study. For a moment the drift of the question was an enigma to him: then realizing that an important theological…

It is unnecessary to say to which of the two men Bok was the more attracted, and when it came, each quarter, to figuring how many articles could go…

From his boyhood days (up to the present writing) Bok was a pronounced baseball "fan," and so Doctor Patton appealed to a warm place in the young man…

With Scribner's Magazine now in the periodical field, Bok would be asked on his trips to the publishing houses to have an eye open for advertisements…

Although the Scribners did not publish Mark Twain's books, the humorist was a frequent visitor to the retail store, and occasionally he would…

Bok's newspaper syndicate work had brought him into contact with Fanny Davenport, then at the zenith of her career as an actress. Miss Davenport,…

Bok was attracted to the work: he had never seen the United States, was anxious to do so, and looked upon the chance as a good opportunity. Miss…

It is difficult to say whether this was or was not for Bok the turning-point which comes in the life of every young man. Where the venture into…

Looking back and viewing the theatrical profession even as it was in that day (of a much higher order than now), he is convinced he would never…

The Scribner house, in its foreign-book department, had imported some copies of Bourrienne's Life of Napoleon, and a set had found its way to Bok's…

But Bok was really happiest in that part of his work which concerned itself with the writing of advertisements. The science of advertisement writing,…

To publishers whose advertisements he secured for the periodicals in his charge, he made suggestions for the improvement of their announcements,…

An occasion came in which he was permitted to prove his contention. The Scribners had published Andrew Carnegie's volume, Triumphant Democracy, and…

And, rightly or wrongly, book advertising has continued much along the same lines until the present day. In fact, in no department of manufacturing…

That there is a tremendous unsupplied book demand in this country there is no doubt: the wider distribution and easier access given to periodicals…

The publishing house had been advertising in the Philadelphia magazine, so that the visit of Mr. Curtis was not an occasion for surprise. Mr.…

Bok promised Mr. Curtis he would look over the field, and meanwhile he sent over to Philadelphia the promised trial "literary gossip" installment. It…

He gathered a collection of domestic magazines then published, and looked them over to see what was already in the field. Then he began to study…